Impact of osteopenia on surgical and oncological outcomes in patients with pancreatic cancer

Introduction Osteopenia, which is defined as a decrease in bone mineral density, has been recently recognized as a metabolic and an oncological biomarker for surgery in patients with malignancy. We aimed to study the prognostic impact of osteopenia in patients with pancreatic cancer (PC) after resection. Methods A total of 56 patients who underwent curative resection of PC were retrospectively investigated. The skeletal muscle index at the third lumbar spine and bone mineral density at the 11th thoracic vertebra were measured using computed tomography. Results Sarcopenia and osteopenia were identified in 24 (43%) and 27 (48%) patients, respectively. The overall and disease-free survival rates were significantly lower in the sarcopenia group than in the non-sarcopenia group ( p